BSF Breeding
With decreasing space in landfills to dispose of organic waste and the high levels of greenhouse gasses emitted by food waste (estimated at 3.6Gt CO2e per annum), the breeding of Black Soldier Fly (BSF) presents a unique circular economy solution, converting waste into much needed protein and fertilizer for farming, whilst reducing emissions and the pressure on our land and oceans
One kilogram of BSF neonates consumes 40 tons of organic waste/feedstock over a period of 12 to 18 days, resulting in 8 tons live larvae (used as protein feed) and 15 tons of high-quality fertilizer.
THE COMPANY
BSF Breeding is supporting the accelerated growth of the global BSF industry by supplying BSF neonates (freshly hatched larvae) to African and European organic waste processing customers. BSF Breeding focuses on the most technical aspect of the BSF value chain – breeding at scale – to reduce cost and complexity for their customers and allow them to take a short cut in the insect industry. Customers can focus on growing neonates and developing products without worrying about operating the breeding cycle. BSF Breeding could supply 100% of the producers’ neonate requirements or be a risk mitigator and supply some of the requirement as a second source of supply.
THE INVESTMENTS
An investment of ZAR7,500,000 (USD420,000) will fund the expansion of BSF Breeding’s operations to triple BSFB’s existing production capacity and attract further commercial investment.
THE IMPACT
Producing sufficient eggs/neonates to feed on the organic waste currently represents a bottleneck in the BSF industry, as this is a biologically complicated process that requires requiring strict temperature and humidity control as well as significant human intervention. By contrast, the process of rearing the neonates to larvae is reasonably straightforward and can be automated. BSFB’s customers can focus on sourcing waste and feedstocks and growing out the larvae. BSF Breeding will supply neonates at competitive prices to a range of BSF out-growers from small-scale farmers who utilize organic waste produced from their own operations and to feed the BSF larvae to their livestock, to large scale clean city initiatives and sanitation organizations on using the BSF to dispose of human waste and other effluent.